Am I right to be annoyed by this? (Cultural appropriation?)

[TheincredibleBookEatingManchot]

Or maybe I don't have the right to be annoyed?

A couple I know who are white British have named their dog a Sanskrit word, which is used in Hinduism and Buddhism. Also the woman wore a bindi at their wedding. Maybe it's just because I don't like this couple anyway so anything they do annoys me but I feel weirdly personally annoyed and kind of bitter about it.

I am ethnically half Indian but culturally completely white British and my Indian family were all Christians (and now atheists) so I have no claim on anything Indian/Hindu/Buddhist; it's not my culture they're appropriating.

But still I kind of feel like if I named my pet a word from an Indian language or started wearing bindis then my Britishness, my belonging in this country would be called into question, but this couple, with their pale skin and light hair are secure in their Britishness, no one's going to start questioning their identity or tell them to go "back" to India, so they get to use things from Indian culture to make themselves look interesting and exotic.

And I don't. But I don't want to. So am I unreasonable to be annoyed at them?

I don't think I've expressed myself very well but not really sure how to make myself clear.

Quite possibly I am unreasonable and this has nothing to do with me.

@forkfun "I want to live in a society where people can choose names, clothes, jewellery etc. freely, without repercussions like being told "to go home"." THIS 🙌👏

(Another Scot here, clearly we're more tolerant and don't mind sharing our culture)

YANBU, that would grate with me too and I'm white british, christian upbringing. Re the dog's name though, what does the name actually mean? If it has a specific religious meaning or is the name of a god, that's not on, but if it means something like 'happy' or 'black' (if the dog was black!) I might excuse it.
I'm guessing they are guilty on other fronts also though. Do they have a statue of Buddha in the garden?

How do you know she's not Hindi?

Why do you get to decide what they name their dog?
My ILs dogs name is Korean and they're not Korean. They just like the name.

You've admitted you don't like them. You're just looking for something to be offended by.

Scottish is not a religion.

You are a bit.
I'm not sure why it would bother you as you don't identify with your Indian heritage (regardless of religion) and I don't feel you should resent a non Indian non-hindu for wearing a bindi, just because you would get a reaction if you were to do so.
My paternal family are Arab Muslims. I don't fully follow the religion or culture but I don't have a problem with white (non-Muslim) Brits adopting these if they wished, providing they were not being disrespectful, mocking or racist.
We live in a global world--is it really so wrong to adopt aspects of another culture that we like and respect?

I think you are angry at the wrong people OP.

How do you know she's not Hindi?

Because she’s not a language?

Scottish is not a religion

Neither is Indian.

@paranoidmum2 oh I'm sorry for my autocorrect

Cultural appropriation doesn't exist because loads of white people say it doesn't and it isn't an issue so you must be being unreasonable OP.

Suddenly no one is allowed to take up influences and inspiration from different cultures any more in MN world. Lovely.

Is it an Indian breed of dog?

Neither is Indian.

But Hinduism and Buddhism are. Sanskrit is a holy language.

...and this from an OP with a French name??

My Scottish dog has an Irish name. He seems ok with this though could explain why he ignores it half the time.

@paranoidmum2 but the issue isn't really the use of the language. OPs question whether it's cultural appropriation.

@paranoidmum "Scottish is not a religion." I never said it was, we are discussing cultural appropriation, and Scotland certainly has its own culture

Use of language is an issue for the OP. She says:

A couple I know who are white British have named their dog a Sanskrit word, which is used in Hinduism and Buddhism. Also the woman wore a bindi at their wedding. Maybe it's just because I don't like this couple anyway so anything they do annoys me but I feel weirdly personally annoyed and kind of bitter about it.

I'm afraid I really can't get aerated about cultural appropriation. Like a PP said, it's just another bandwagon for people to jump on and decide they're offended by.

Just live and let live FFS.

@GracefulHippo

I am Danish and was recently asked if I felt that everyone using the word “hygge” and baking cinnamon rolls made me upset as it was cultural appropriation

My Danish OH gets very annoyed at the random use of ø and å in business/brand names that have no Danish/Scandinavian connection, where they've just replaced an o with ø or an a with å and given no consideration that these are entirely different letters with different pronunciations, they just like the way they look.

...and this from an OP with a French name??

bsc you beat me to it

@paranoidmum2 just wondering if you read the thread title and OP? She's very clear that her issue is the culture thing. She just mentioned the language as part of that.

@PlanDeRaccordement My DH has also been told to "fuck off back to his own country" (also France) ...but it turns out they thought he was an asylum seeker

It does make me cringe when people give their children a name from a different culture/language because “it means x/y and we thought it was cool.” I think that they do it to make themselves look oh so accepting and embracing and understanding of others, it’s not necessarily offensive but people might want to consider what a word actually means in another language vs the fact they think it sounds nice.

Case in point. I grew up in Africa. And in Africa it is very common for people to give their children names which are English words. They absolutely don’t do it to be offensive, it just sounds right to them.

As such a family member worked with a man called “poison” whose brother’s name was “wireless.” These are the names they were given and to them they’re nice names, but those who know what those words actually mean would most likely find them amusing.

If you give your children a name which relates to religion then I think that you should consider that those who practice that religion may not find it as lovely as you do, because to them it means something different than it does to you.

Think naming a dog is different though.

YABU. Cultural appropriation is just a new thing for people to get offended by.

This is utter bullshit. Cultural appropriation is a real thing and if you ever had to experience the negatives of it then you wouldn't say that.